Hundreds of thousands of mourners weep, shout slogans as Bhutto is buried at family mausoleum

Saturday

Dec 29, 2007 at 12:01 AM

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan — Many among the mourners chanted for justice and blamed the government for their heroine's death. Others jostled to get a last glimpse of the flag-draped coffin. Some simply wept and hugged each other.

ASHRAF KHAN

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan — Many among the mourners chanted for justice and blamed the government for their heroine's death. Others jostled to get a last glimpse of the flag-draped coffin. Some simply wept and hugged each other.

The funeral for assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Friday in southern Pakistan was permeated with raw emotion for the hundreds of thousands of admirers who converged on her family's mausoleum here.

People crammed inside the cavernous hall, throwing rose petals on the coffin. Some cried out "Benazir is alive" as her body was laid to rest. One man fainted and another sobbed uncontrollably, crying "My sister has gone."

Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, appeared composed, wearing a white cap typical of the Sindh province that's a family stronghold. He and the couple's 19-year-old son, Bilawal, helped lift the coffin into the grave. An Islamic cleric led mourners in prayers.

A vast crowd congregated outside, lining up in hundreds of rows for the prayers and later filing by to throw sand on the grave. They had arrived on tractors, buses, cars and jeeps that were parked in dusty fields surrounding the mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, where Bhutto's father, former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, also is buried.

Some in the crowd shouted "general, killer!" and "army, killer" in reference to President Pervez Musharraf, who recently retired as army chief and was accused by Bhutto supporters of being complicit in the slaying or — at the least — not providing her enough security. The government has denied that charge, and leaders of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party tried to quiet the screamers.

Draped in the party's red, green and black flag, the coffin had been carried about three miles in a white ambulance from the Bhutto ancestral home to the vast marble mausoleum, at one point going by a passenger train that rioters had set ablaze in rage over the slaying.

Signboards that had been erected two months ago to mark Bhutto's return from exile to Pakistan still dotted the route. On one, someone had scrawled, "Benazir you are the hope for the poor."

In front of the mausoleum, with its three domes, mourners wept and consoled each other as they waited for the coffin to be shifted inside. Some chanted, "As long as the moon and sun are alive, so is the name of Bhutto."

Zulfiqar Bhutto, founder of the Pakistan People's Party and a central figure in Pakistan's troubled 60-year history, was executed in 1979 during the military regime of the late dictator, Gen. Zia ul-Haq, after being convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent's father. Benazir was the eldest of his children.

She visited the mausoleum in October to pay respects at her father's grave, days after she narrowly escaped another suicide attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi that killed more than 140 people. The ambulance passed over a ramp that was built for that visit.

People who gathered for Friday's funeral repeatedly chanted slogans against former top officials in Sindh and Punjab provinces who are members of the ruling, pro-Musharraf party.

"We Sindhis do not want Pakistan anymore. Why is it only Sindhi prime ministers are assassinated or killed?" said Rehmatullah, 25, who goes by one name, referring to the demise of the Bhuttos and country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was shot to death in 1951. All three died in Rawalpindi where Pakistan's army has its headquarters.

"Now we will bring revolution," Rehmatullah said.

Another mourner disagreed.

"No we need Pakistan. It was BB's mission to protect Pakistan and we will complete her mission," said Eman Ali Shah.

Bhutto, whose party has long been popular among Pakistan's poor, served twice as prime minister between 1988 and 1996. Both her governments were toppled amid accusations of corruption and mismanagement. She was seeking a third term when she was killed Friday while campaigning for her party in Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.